It’s almost time for the playoffs at IEM Cologne 2023! Team Vitality are riding high on the wave of their Paris Major and IEM Rio wins, but can they pull off another in Germany? They’ve found themselves in the lower bracket going into the playoffs but true fans never count Vitality out. We got the chance to speak with Vitality Spinx about his thoughts on Cologne, GG.Bet show matches and more!
Source: Adela Sznajder/ESL Gaming
How have you found Cologne so far?
For the city, we didn’t go out so much and actually the summer in Cologne isn’t the best so far, in my opinion. But the tournament itself has been good. We lost to G2 yesterday so we are in the quarters instead of the semis. But at least we are still in the tournament, so it’s not a big loss and we’re happy so far.
How do you feel you’ve been playing at the tournament?
I think our peaks and lows in this tournament have been a bit weird. Like we had a really high peak in one game against MOUZ where we just demolished them. And then we had a lower peak when we played against G2 and we weren’t showing the best CS. So this part is a bit weird for us but I just hope that we can show the high peak again.
Do these peaks and lows happen a lot for you or are you more consistent normally?
No, it’s not something that happens a lot to us. Of course, not every game is 100% but there is some level you should keep up to. At the same time, we have a new member so it’s understandable and we will just work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
You had a strong start to the group stage but since you lost to G2, how is your confidence going into the next stage?
I think our confidence is still high. We still know what we want so it’s all good even though we face Cloud9, who is a bit of a tricky team. It’s a new team so we don’t know much of what to expect from them. I’m sure we will talk about it and prepare everything we need to.
What do you do to prepare before each game?
It depends on the game. It depends on how much time we have before the game because sometimes there isn’t long to prepare. Usually our coach and assistant coach are watching the games, sometimes they make a video or if there isn’t time, they will just talk with us. They will share their ideas and then as a team, we will chime in.
Is there more pressure to perform since Vitality won the Paris Major?
Of course there is pressure, even without Paris. Our team all wants to be a winning team. We don’t wish to just reach the playoffs, we want to win. So there is always pressure on us to perform. Now we have flamez, there is pressure to show that even though we switched with dupreeh, we are still on the same level. I think right now, this is the goal. We haven’t reached the peak yet that we did with dupreeh. We won Paris and Rio back to back so we are not there yet but I am confident we’ll get there.
How does not playing to a home crowd affect the French players on Vitality as well as yourself?
I guess for the French members, it will be less meaningful in a way because playing on your home soil is something else. For me, it’s my first time in Cologne and playing in the arena. This tournament will mean a lot to Magisk because Israelis have never won it. Apeks told me that the Lanxess Arena is one of a kind. People really liked it, I’ve never played there so I hope it’ll be insane.
Do you feel confident about going into the matchups against Cloud9 and ENCE?
The game against Cloud9 will be a bit tricky. It’ll be weird because we have almost no data. I’m sure our team will prepare for this part but even if we beat Cloud9, it’ll be weird against ENCE too. First of all, we always play close games against them. There is an element of you wanting to beat them more than a normal team. I expect if we qualify to the semi finals, the game will be hard but I believe we can definitely win.
During the LeGGends show matches with GG.Bet, how was it playing with members of Navi?
It was really cool, I especially enjoyed playing the second map. I was tryharding a bit because we were playing against Apeks and ZywoO. It was funny because every time I killed Apeks, he could hear me laughing and when he killed me, I could hear him. We talked shit to each other so there is some fun to it. It was a pleasure to meet the Navi guys. You see these guys every day at tournaments and say “hi” but no more than that. When we played together, we got to know them better. Now, every time we see Navi, we are closer.
Do you prefer a chill show match or a high pressure tournament?
Definitely the high pressure. Show matches can be boring, it depends how they organize it, who you’re playing with, who you’re playing against. I believe it’s unbalanced with how tryhard you should be. If you’re doing the fun part and the other team is tryhard, it’s not fun. It’s hard to make a good show match. There are definitely some but it’s hard. With high pressure it’s the best part of our job.
If you could play 1 team in the grand finals of IEM Cologne 2023, who would you pick?
Well I guess the only options are G2 or Astralis. It’s hard because Astralis are the ex team of Magisk so there is some stuff to it. To see a fight for Cologne against Magisk and dev1ce would be insane. But we’ve played 2 grand finals and right now the score is 1-1 so we do want to take it to 2-1. At the same time, you have G2 who just beat us so we want to take revenge. If we reach the grand final, we have something that will give us fuel against the enemy.
Vitality Spinx and the rest of the team will be facing Cloud9 in the quarterfinals of IEM Cologne 2023 on August 4th!
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